You're cruising along in life on autopilot. Everything seems great. Your blessings abound and then bam! Something happens that changes your life in an instant. Maybe that’s an illness, a death or in my case the death of a job. The Thursday before Labor Day weekend I was called into a meeting with the “top brass”; the owner, CEO and EVP, and told they were taking marketing “in a new direction”. If I had not seen this coming, I probably would have responded “How exciting! Where are we going?!”. In which they would have replied “Here’s the deal — you’re not coming along”.
While I have never been through anything remotely like this, I can share that I wasn’t surprised. The company had been sold and experience has taught me that it’s not unusual to see the executive leadership team replaced. And while part of me was relieved — that’s a story for another day - it was still terrifying all the same.
So now where do we go? What do we do?
If you’re like me, and life threw you a curve ball this year, leaving you contemplating your next career move, maybe together we can figure out a way to navigate to our 2.0. That’s what I’m calling this - Julanne 2.0. Deciding what the next chapter will look like. So let’s start simple. Baby steps.
Podcasts are your friend
After working 10+ hour days per week, I suddenly have time to listen to podcasts. I love them! They are my new jam. When I’m driving in the car for any distance more than 20-minutes, I turn on a podcast. Long trip — podcast. Running on the treadmill? You guessed it — podcast!
Why? They can be informative, inspirational, motivational — help point us in the right direction. Maintain a focus. Some of my favorite podcasts:
The Brendon Show. This dude rocks! Seriously, I don’t care what your line of work, passion or interest. You should tune in and listen to at least one episode of this guys podcast. And for those of you with short attention spans — most podcasts are short and to the point. The longer ones take a commercial break.
Marketing & Influence with Brendon Burchard. Obviously, for someone like me whose focus and passion is marketing — this one is for the win.
Unlocking Us with Brene’ Brown. If you don’t know who she is then all I can say is, it’s a good thing you stumbled across this little blog. She’s a thought leader — storyteller. She did a TED talk on the power of vulnerability. Her podcasts seem to be spoken from the heart — she shares personal stories about her marriage, being a mom and everything through the lens of a researcher. Did I forget that? She’s a researcher at the University of Houston. She’s just cool. Trust me and listen to her.
Simon Sinek. Am I being too vulnerable and sharing too much by admitting that I just love this guy? His words of wisdom continue to inspire and hopefully make me a better leader. He recently started a blog called “A bit of optimism”. I think my favorite to date was “Moving Forward with my sister Sara”. All I can say about this podcast is “Wow. Talk about being vulnerable.” If you want to hear some raw emotion shared, be inspired by Simon and his sister’s courage. I encourage you to listen to this podcast.
There is so much to the next steps of this journey as we uncover our 2.0. But for today, I feel good about getting my jam on with podcasts and learning from those who have gone before me.
In joy,
Julanne
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